D&D 5E What Arcane Traditions would you like to see

[Flamestrike]

So no changes (you indicated changes would be in bold)

Honestly, I'd go so far as to limit wizards to only spells from their specialization school. So an Illusionist would be an Illusionist, and an Enchanter would be an Enchanter. No more abjurers clearing the room with a fireball. If you're going to specialize, specialize. Don't half-ass it. I'd definitely add your bonuses to stuff from the specialist school to the mix, though.

It limits them in the sense that 20th level Wizard here (with Int 20) has 6 spells prepared from any school, and 20 prepared from his own school. He retains the flexibility to prepare half a dozen key spells from outside his main school (for counterspell, detect magic, an offensive blasty spell for the non-evokers, mage armor and shield) with the rest all coming from his specialised school.

There is a soft benefit built in (+1 to DCs and attack rolls) to encourage him to use those school spells.

Over the course of his career he'll cast a lot more (school) spells than other spells.

 

[Ketser]

I think for single school (only use spells from one school) wizards to be possible, the spell schools would need a major rework. Although some schools have the potential for making "uberspecialists" a possibility, then others either lack spells or are basically meant as complementary or secondary schools like abjuration or divination.

 

[Ath'kethin]

It limits them in the sense that 20th level Wizard here (with Int 20) has 6 spells prepared from any school, and 20 prepared from his own school. He retains the flexibility to prepare half a dozen key spells from outside his main school (for counterspell, detect magic, an offensive blasty spell for the non-evokers, mage armor and shield) with the rest all coming from his specialised school.

There is a soft benefit built in (+1 to DCs and attack rolls) to encourage him to use those school spells.

Over the course of his career he'll cast a lot more (school) spells than other spells.

As compromises go, that's not a bad one. I still don't think it goes far enough, though. Under that system, you can still have the whole "Diviner"-wasting-everybody-with-a-fireball issue.

I suppose it's worth noting that I run a Sword & Sorcery style campaign, and disallowed all casters except Warlocks as PC options. I've been brainstorming ways to make wizards accessible without having a total magical "technology" takeover of the world. Nobody has asked to play a Wizard or Sorcerer, but it's been an interesting worldbuilding exercise.

 

[Ath'kethin]

I think for single school (only use spells from one school) wizards to be possible, the spell schools would need a major rework. Although some schools have the potential for making "uberspecialists" a possibility, then others either lack spells or are basically meant as complementary or secondary schools like abjuration or divination.

I absolutely agree on the "needs more spells" front. I personally wouldn't classify Abjuration or Divination as "secondary," but they certainly are set up that way in the current framework. I would think that a wizard that can keep the party from being hurt (Abjurer) or accurately predict future developments (Diviner) should be powerful bordering on TOO powerful, but in the current setup that's just not the case.

 

[Flamestrike]

As compromises go, that's not a bad one. I still don't think it goes far enough, though. Under that system, you can still have the whole "Diviner"-wasting-everybody-with-a-fireball issue.

I suppose it's worth noting that I run a Sword & Sorcery style campaign, and disallowed all casters except Warlocks as PC options. I've been brainstorming ways to make wizards accessible without having a total magical "technology" takeover of the world. Nobody has asked to play a Wizard or Sorcerer, but it's been an interesting worldbuilding exercise.

OTOH a diviner without access to any Save or Suck magic, no protection magic (and no armor and a d6 hit dice) or damaging options would be crap. They could notice a lot of , but cant do squat about it after the fact.

Its fair to say most wizards know a handful of common spells.

 

[marcelvdpol]

Most of the Wizard's power is in its spell selection. One Wizard could be completely different from another Wizard just based on the spells it has in its spell book. Out of all the Schools/sub classes so far, only the Bladesinger is actually quite different (and plays quite different) from the rest of the Wizards. Most of the PHB schools don't particularly make the Wizard quite special or unique, and the interaction between the selected School and spells from that School is rather weak; most certainly the Wizard sub classes are much closer to each other compared to say the different sub classes in other classes.

I'd love to have more sub classes for the Wizard but only if they actually do something.
1) More interaction between the sub class and certain spells.
2) Free prepared spells from a certain spell list belonging to that sub class (this could be focused on School, elemental type, ritual or other).
3) Special cantrip spell for each sub class on top of the free selectable cantrip spells.

The 8 Schools in the PHB could be part of the School Specialist sub class; the Bladesinger is already there. I'd love to see a Hedge wizard which is focusing on Rituals, an Elemental Wizard which is focusing on spells with elemental effects (Blast spells, Walls and others) and perhaps some other sub class.

 

[Ath'kethin]

OTOH a diviner without access to any Save or Suck magic, no protection magic (and no armor and a d6 hit dice) or damaging options would be crap. They could notice a lot of , but cant do squat about it after the fact.

Its fair to say most wizards know a handful of common spells.

Some options would be more popular than others, certainly. And depending on the campaign style, some would work better than others. But I don't think that situation is a radical change from the way things are now. If your diviner is in a position where they can get hit, either they or the rest of the part isn't doing their job.

And if nobody wants to play Abjurers (or Diviners, or Necromancers, or whatever), so what? It also makes sense that some professions would be more common than others in the world.

And all wizards knowing a handful of common spells (read magic, detect magic, counterspell) is a great argument for making these class abilities instead of spells.

Most of the Wizard's power is in its spell selection. One Wizard could be completely different from another Wizard just based on the spells it has in its spell book. Out of all the Schools/sub classes so far, only the Bladesinger is actually quite different (and plays quite different) from the rest of the Wizards. Most of the PHB schools don't particularly make the Wizard quite special or unique, and the interaction between the selected School and spells from that School is rather weak; most certainly the Wizard sub classes are much closer to each other compared to say the different sub classes in other classes.

I'd love to have more sub classes for the Wizard but only if they actually do something.
1) More interaction between the sub class and certain spells.
2) Free prepared spells from a certain spell list belonging to that sub class (this could be focused on School, elemental type, ritual or other).
3) Special cantrip spell for each sub class on top of the free selectable cantrip spells.

The 8 Schools in the PHB could be part of the School Specialist sub class; the Bladesinger is already there. I'd love to see a Hedge wizard which is focusing on Rituals, an Elemental Wizard which is focusing on spells with elemental effects (Blast spells, Walls and others) and perhaps some other sub class.

This seems to be addressing the same issue I have, though I again argue that it doesn't go far enough. Having a "Hedge Wizard" as the non-specialist option sounds like a good plan too, especially if it has its own spell list and /or is limited to spell slots at or below a given level to keep its overall power far below that of the specialists.

 

[Lanliss]

So no changes (you indicated changes would be in bold)

Honestly, I'd go so far as to limit wizards to only spells from their specialization school. So an Illusionist would be an Illusionist, and an Enchanter would be an Enchanter. No more abjurers clearing the room with a fireball. If you're going to specialize, specialize. Don't half-ass it. I'd definitely add your bonuses to stuff from the specialist school to the mix, though.

The real issue that comes up with this approach, of course, is that just like in 2nd Edition, you run into spells that EVERY wizard should have, such as detect magic and read magic, that would be off-limits to most wizards under the change. Maybe those should be class abilities instead of spells.

That's an approach, but not one that I feel would adequately address the situation. A non-optimized fireball coming from an "Enchanter" is still a fireball. A non-optimized animate dead still allows that "Evoker" to create zombies.

Again, my approach would probably require a huge number of spells be added to the inventory. I get that. But it would also make wizards actually distinct from one another.

I think it would also address many of the "WIZARD IS SO UNBALANCED!!!" type complaints we still see. It takes the wizard from being a class that can do everything to a class that does one thing very well - just like the fighter or the rogue. If the benchmark arcane caster is limited in what spells they can cast, it also makes the limitations on the Eldritch Knight and the Arcane Trickster make more sense, to my mind. They get two schools each, to the Wizard's one, but are far more limited in the power level they can reach and in the potency of their casting.

It would be a long while to work it out, but I would be able to balance things like that. If I think Fireball is plenty good, I can lock its current effect for only Evocation, and everyone else gets a weaker fireball, maybe with reduced radius. Or, if I don't care about balance, I can make fireball bigger for Evocation, something like double the radius and a bigger damage die.

Wizard would still be flexible, his niche, but you wouldn't be grabbing the same exact spell list no matter your wizard school.

 

[Sacrosanct]

I agree that if you're gonna specialize, they need to go back to 2e with opposing schools.

As far as new schools, I'd like to see naming (think the magic in Patrick Rothfuss's books--although that's such a different style it would have to be it's own class), and an alienist like in 2e's S&P. Most everything else has kinda been covered already via various options.

 

[MonkeezOnFire]

Aside from how it was mechanically bonkers, I like the path the theurge mage took. Not only did it allow you to bring faith to wizard characters, it also allowed the wizard to tap into many themes with just the addition of 1 subclass. Can model hedge mage with nature domain, if you refluff illusions to shadows you can use trickery for shadow wizard, the light and tempest domains cover some of the elemental wizards, etc.

So I'd really like to see the theurge school brought in, but with some modifications (seriously getting the cleric doman final feature before the clerics?! and getting channel divinity on top of spells and features was simply too much).